The Mike Parris era ended abruptly at Heritage. Parris resigned after one season as the Patriots’ head football coach, Athletic Director Chuck Landy confirmed Wednesday.

Parris, who in his only year as head coach went 6-5, including a loss to Tucker in the first round of the Class AAAAA state playoffs, will remain as a physical education and weight training teacher at the Conyers school.

“It just happened, he talked with the players yesterday,” said Landy. “We had some things that we were working through, (but) coach worked hard, he’s a very good football coach but he just felt like right now the situation we’re in, the situation he was in, he felt like the best thing for him was jet to step down. We appreciated what he did, he’s a very good coach. We appreciate what he did for our kids and our school.”

Landy said Parris will continue to work with current Heritage players in the college recruiting process. In the meantime, Matt Daniels will take over as interim coach. Daniels, who has been at Heritage for the last six years, was also a coach in Tennessee for seven seasons.

“Coach Daniels has got good experience and he’s a tremendous person,” Landy said. “We’re all familiar with Matt, he knows our players, our coaches. (From) a transition standpoint, Matt is the interim coach right now.”

Landy and the Heritage athletic department will meet with its new region next week to discuss scheduling for the 2014 and 2015 seasons, and he expects to name a full-time head football coach sometime next month.

“Our players need to work on their school work and take a break for Christmas and come back in January ready to work again,” said Landy. “Realistically, (the hiring process will happen) sometime in maybe late January, we’ll look at where we’re at.”

Parris started his head coaching career at Forest Park High School where he compiled a 35-11 record from 1992-1995. He spent 17 seasons at Jackson High School where his teams went 123-67 from 1996-2012.